Fox Searchlight

Juliette Lewis (left) and Ellen Page (center) star in "Whip It."

"Whip it," in roller derby-ese, means to swing one of your teammates ahead of her opponent in the frantic and roughhouse race for points.

It's also the title of a new movie that marks the altogether respectable directing debut of actress Drew Barrymore.

"Whip It" is part sports movie and part teenage emancipation movie. The sport is roller derby, of course. The emancipatee is a teenage Texan who seizes upon competitive roller skating as the means of escaping her dullsville town and the well-meaning but overbearing influence of her mother.

Ellen ("Juno") Page stars as 17-year-old Bliss Cavendar. Marcia Gay Harden plays Brooke, mother of Bliss and a woman besotted with the notion that beauty pageants are the road to success for her daughters.

Bliss plays along out of loyalty to her mom, but the die is cast when she spies a roller derby flier while the two of them are shopping in nearby Austin.

Abetted by her best friend (Alia Shawkatt), who conveniently has the use of a family car, Bliss unearths her childhood Barbie skates, trains herself and wins a place among the buff and tattooed athletes who make up a squad of also-rans called the Hurl Scouts.

She conceals this secret life in Austin from her parents until the day -- weeks later -- when a scheduling conflict forces her to choose between the championship derby and the Miss Bluebonnet pageant.

"Whip It" demands Spandex credulity of its audience. First is the idea that Bliss' literally bruising other life could be hidden so long. Secondly, we are asked to accept that a character played by someone as tiny and seemingly breakable as Ellen Page could hold her own among Smashley Simpson, Bloody Holly, Maggie Mayhem, Eva Destruction, Iron Maven and other colorfully monikered Amazons of the derby world.

Page gives it her plucky best, however, and does well enough to keep the movie well away from absurdity. It's Page as sensitive daughter and friend, not as "Babe Ruthless" on the derby rink, that makes it work.

She is ably helped by the supporting cast, most notably by Harden and Daniel Stern as Bliss' parents. As they engage with their beloved but nonconformist daughter, and with each other, they are in some ways more compelling characters than Bliss herself.

Working from Shauna Cross' screen adaptation of her own book, "Derby Girl," Barrymore proves herself a capable novice director. Though working in front of the camera since childhood, she clearly has been watching what goes on behind it as well. It will be fun to see whether she follows this new career avenue and where it might take her if she does.